The presence of social networks has simplified scammers' work in finding victims. Using messages, they send phishing information that contains a link to a website where the user is offered to participate in some:
- promotions;
- sweepstakes;
- profitable deals with high returns;
- big discounts.
In most cases, such information is fake, and scammers deceive users without providing the promised service.
Fraud in Messengers
Very often, scammers on social networks and messengers spread information that contains enticing job offers with information about:
- flexible working hours;
- high daily income now;
- simple tasks, and for such work, only a gadget is needed.
This sounds like a very enticing job - no leadership, no need to visit the office, working in free time.
Even now, the scheme with messenger hacking is very popular. Scammers send fake messages from relatives or friends asking to lend money and transfer it to a card, inventing various situations: got into an accident, detained by the police, and others. In most cases, people fall for these tricks and transfer the specified amount to scammers.
To avoid this, it is necessary to verify the information by calling the sender to clarify whether such a request came from them.
Very often, scammers manage to hack messengers, which allows them to send spam messages, sending messages to all contacts with requests:
- to send money;
- to follow a link;
- to buy a product.
They mainly work with the scheme of transferring money to a card - it's faster for them.
It's clear that it's impossible to completely keep your data secret on the internet, but at least it's possible to make hackers' work more difficult. It's necessary to create a strong and complex password. Such a password will be difficult for a scammer to guess, and two-factor authentication of the account is mandatory, which will reliably protect the data - this is an additional password that must be entered when logging into Messenger, such a password is sent only to the user's mobile phone via SMS.
Scammers
Scammers are internet fraudsters who deceitfully obtain money or other valuables from people. Scammers often use social engineering to pressure people.
Several types of scams can be identified:
- Phishing emails, websites, and mailings - this involves sending emails, messages in messengers, posing as representatives of banks, well-known services, online stores, extracting personal data from users, and also creating fake websites by copying the main domain.
- Fake lottery or contest winnings. Scammers inform the victim that to receive the winnings, a commission payment must be made, after which the winnings will be transferred. Naturally, this is a scam.
- Many scammers in computer games offer their help in passing levels or exchanging rare game artifacts. To achieve this, the scammer asks the player to provide temporary access to the game account, but instead of the promised help, they may steal the player's account and their accumulated game resources, personal data, and rare artifacts.
- Fake brokers, traders, and cryptocurrency agents - they extract savings from victims by posing as experienced brokers, collecting money from victims by enticing them with high returns in cryptocurrency investments.
Fraud via WhatsApp
Recently, there have been more cases of hacking the WhatsApp messenger. Scammers access the victim's contacts in the gadget and send phishing messages or spam requests asking to transfer money to a card, hoping someone will actually respond. Sometimes, there are those who actually make the transfer without clarifying the information, becoming victims of fraud. For the money to actually reach the scammer, the messages always mention that the card has changed and the money needs to be sent to another card number. Scammers collect the necessary amount and close the card. Recovering money stolen this way is very difficult, if not impossible.
Telegram Scammers
Similar schemes are executed in the Telegram messenger, and very often bots created with artificial intelligence are used here. Such communication is almost indistinguishable from real. They ask questions and require the necessary information, for example, a bot offering a job may request personal data, passwords to bank accounts, credit card numbers, PIN codes, allegedly for the purpose of salary transfer.
Phishing mailings with real income figures, the latest information from trading platforms, and so on, are equipped with links that lead to fake websites, allowing scammers to capture the necessary information.
The main way to protect data from attacks is to be attentive, not to follow all the links sent in messages, carefully study the sent information, and install reliable protection for messengers and social networks, using at least two-factor authentication.